The music scene has lost another giant. Pete Seeger, legendary folk singer and political activist, passed away yesterday at age 94.

He believed in using music to bring about change. I remember very well when he appeared on the Smothers Brothers TV show in, I believe, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War.

Seeger was blacklisted for his political views during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s, and had not been allowed to appear on TV ever since. The Smothers Brothers, who of course loved to stir up controversy, invited Seeger to appear on the show in what was his first TV appearance since being blacklisted. And that was indeed controversial; a lot of right-wingers weren't happy about that at all.

So what did Pete do on that show? He performed a song called "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", about a true incident during World War II when an officer forced a group of recruits to wade a stream in Louisiana that was too deep. The overly gung-ho officer ended up drowning. And every verse of the song ended with the line, "And the big fool said to push on".

The last verse contained a clear, although indirect, reference to the Vietnam War, and ended with the line, "And the big fool says to push on" -- a blatant reference to Lyndon Johnson.

That didn't exactly make certain people feel better about him being allowed back on TV.

Here is the song:

__________________
"When they ask us what we're doing,
We say, "living while we're alive""
-- Tim and Nicki Bluhm